Bill Segal should have been open about deals

Imagine the chattering Sunday after the Orlando Sentinelreported onSegal's failure to disclose his business relationship with developer Nancy Rossman.

Segal offered explanations, at one point even noting that he is not versed in "every jot and tittle of the law.'' I would think someone running for mayor — particularly someone who is a developer by trade — should be up on his jots and tittles.

If not, there's always the county attorney's office to offer free advice.

I don't think Segal is a crook. But I do think he had a political incentive to keep a public distance from Rossman.

There is a time-honored tradition in Florida in which investors swoop in to buy land the government might want to buy. They then flip it back to the government for a tidy profit, often after seeking zoning changes and other improvements to jack up the value.

Rossman and a business partner — not Segal — bought 1,584 acres near the Wekiva River in 2001 for about $7 million. The state had shown interest in buying it for preservation.

Rossman's payday arrived three years later, when the Legislature targeted the land as part of the Wekiva River Parkway project. In December 2006, she sold it to a consortium of government agencies involved in the Wekiva Parkway for a whopping $74 million — a ten-fold increase at a time when rural real estate prices were plunging.

But even that wasn't enough. Rossman then asked some of the agencies involved in the purchase — including Orange County — to claim that she sold under threat of condemnation. This would entitle her to a tax break on the windfall profit.

You could argue there is nothing wrong with a smart investor taking government saps to the cleaners at our expense. And trying to avoid taxes is an American tradition.

But while I might admire Rossman's acumen, I wouldn't want her on my campaign commercials.

Segal made $2.5 million on their business ventures between 2004 and 2006.

He says Rossman has so many deals with so many people, he can't keep track. That is why he says he unwittingly voted on items she had pending before the county commission while they were in business together. If it was me, I might have asked her for a heads up so I could abstain. But that would require filling out a disclosure form explaining why.

There was no way Segal could plead ignorance of Rossman's involvement in the Wekiva deal. The Sentinel's Lake County columnist Lauren Ritchie began writing blistering columns on it in January 2005, when she attacked an attempt by Rossman and her partner to get utilities extended to the property to increase the value.

When the sale went down in December 2006, she wrote that it "boosted greed to an obscene level. It is revolting.''

The next month, the deal went to the county commission for approval.

By coincidence, that meeting was where Commissioner Teresa Jacobs argued for ethics reforms, including disclosure of commissioners' business partners. This is where Segal issued his "chattering class'' quote.

He then left before the vote on Rossman's land. Segal says he went to a funeral but couldn't name the deceased. He also missed a second vote on the property two months later, this time for a lunch date. He says it's common for commissioners to miss votes. When they do, they don't have to file disclosure forms.

"If I overlooked something, it was not a mistake of trying to hide anything,'' he says. "I take ethics seriously. I'm an open book.''

I think the issue is this simple. Segal has to decide if he wants to be a mayor or be a developer because being both isn't going to work.